A Teacher's Nightmare
by TotalCSIfan
Summary: At first when one of Jackie's students do not show up for school she is not overly concerned until someone tells her something that takes things in a new and possibly frightening direction. Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing of CSI

A Teacher's Nightmare

Jackie looked around her classroom at all of her students sitting in their desks. It was only 8:25 in the morning and the students had just arrived to start the day. Jackie surveyed the room, checking to see if any of the students were gone for the day so she could take attendance.

There was only one student gone, a little girl named Avalon. Avalon was a very sweet little girl, all of her classmates loved her because she was such a good friend to all of them, she hated seeing any of her classmates sad or upset. If someone didn't have someone to play with at recess Avalon would go up to them and asked them if they wanted to play with her. Avalon was also a teacher's dream, she never got into trouble, Jackie couldn't remember a time when she had ever had to even redirect her, and she was a smart little girl too.

Jackie had also taught Avalon's older sister a couple years ago and the two girls were a lot alike, both in their academics and their sweet demeanor, although her older sister Christine had been a little more shy then her younger sister. Jackie also really liked the girl's mom Samantha, Samantha was very involved in the girl's school, she helped out at all the school functions, accompanied them on all their field trips, and she was even a weekly classroom helper in Jackie's class, meaning she'd come in once a week and basically act like an aid to Jackie. It was easy to see why her two girls were so polite after meeting her.

Jackie didn't know the girl's dad very well because he worked a lot but from just the couple times she'd met him he seemed like a very nice guy and a loving father, Avalon would tell Jackie stories about how she would always watch football with her dad, it made Jackie smile to hear her stories because it reminded Jackie of all those basketball games she and her dad watched together while she was growing up.

Jackie got onto the computer to take attendance, expecting to see an E or an I by Avalon's name. Kent Elementary had a policy that if your child was going to be gone for the day you need to call the school to let the secretary know, and then Sarah Caldwell (the secretary) would mark either an E-for excused absence, meaning they were on vacation, or something else was going on for the day and the parent or guardian for whatever reason was keeping their child home. Or Sarah would mark an I-for illness if the parent or guardian called and said the child was sick.

Jackie was surprised when she got into her attendance and noticed Avalon had nothing by her name, Samantha was usually so on top of things, it wasn't like her to forget to call into the school to let them know why Avalon wasn't there, but Jackie wasn't too worried, sometimes it slips a parent's mind to call, especially if your kiddo is sick, and Jackie knew that if Samantha didn't call soon Sarah would call and make sure Avalon was ok.

"Has anyone seen Avalon?" Jackie asked the other students causally.

Jackie thought maybe Avalon was in Christine's classroom talking to her or that she was possibly down talking to Sarah Caldwell, as much as the teacher's at the school liked to believe that they themselves were the kid's favorite, there was no denying that Sarah Caldwell was nearly ever child's favorite person at the school, and for good reason, Sarah put her heart and sole into each and every student in the school, she genuinely cared about all of them and it showed.

Jackie looked up from her computer and noticed one of her students standing by her side.

"What is it Lucy?" Jackie asked.

Lucy was Avalon's best friend.

"Mrs. Stokes, Avalon was suppose to meet at the crosswalk so we could walk to school together this morning but she never came, she's probably sick today." The little girl said innocently without a care in the world.

Jackie's heart sank.

"Maybe Sweetie." Jackie said calmly to the little girl so she wouldn't scare her but a much more horrific and sinister thought crossed Jackie's mind-something or someone had prevented Avalon from meeting her friend at the crosswalk this morning.

**TBC….**


	2. Chapter 2

Jackie immediately picked up the school phone and dialed the secretary's extension.

"Mrs. Caldwell, this is Mrs. Stokes, I need you to call Avalon Casey's house immediately and make sure she is at home."

Before Sarah even had a chance to respond Avalon and her mom burst through the classroom door.

"Mrs. Caldwell, never mind, everything is fine." Jackie said.

"Ok, I'm so glad to hear it." The secretary said cheerfully and then hung up.

"I'm sorry I'm late Mrs. Stokes." Avalon said as she went and hung her backpack up on her hook in the corner of the room.

"It's my fault, my alarm didn't go off this morning and I woke up really late, I'm so sorry." Samantha said.

"No worries Avalon it's good to see you, I'm so glad you're here." Jackie said with a smile, and she meant every word.

Avalon went and grabbed a chair and set it at her desk and then she went up to Jackie's desk.

"Mrs. Stokes, am I going to have to miss morning recess?" the little girl asked.

"No sweetie, why would you?" Jackie asked.

"Because I might not finish my morning seat work because I'm late." The little girl said.

Jackie smiled at her.

"We'll blame it on your mom." Jackie whispered jokingly, loud enough for Samantha to hear.

The little girl grinned at Jackie.

"Ok." She giggled.

Samantha laughed.

"And you should blame it on me, it was totally my fault." She said.

Samantha then turned her attention to Lucy "Lucy sweetie I'm sorry that Avalon didn't meet you at the crosswalk this morning, we tried to call your house to let you know but you had already left."

"That's ok." Lucy said with a smile.

Minutes later Samantha had left and Avalon begun to work on her worksheet. Jackie was busy at her desk grading some papers when Lucy again appeared at her desk.

"Mrs. Stokes, can I have a conference with you out in the hall?" She asked quietly.

"Sure." Jackie answered as she followed the little girl out into the hallway.

Jackie left her classroom door open so she could still monitor the other kids and it was a good thing too because she hadn't been in the hall for five seconds when she heard one of the boys in her class say "One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war."

Jackie poked her head into the doorway and sure enough there were two boys having a thumb war.

"Uh boys, that is not even close to being ok." Jackie said sternly.

"Sorry Mrs. Stokes." They said immediately.

"What should you be doing?" She asked them.

"Our worksheets." One of them said.

"Bingo." Jackie said.

"We are going to play bingo?" One of the boys causing the mischief asked excitedly.

Jackie rubbed her face with her hands in frustration.

"No, I meant, oh never mind, just get going on your worksheets." She told them.

"Ok." They answered as they immediately picked up their pencils.

Within seconds she heard one of them say "Man, she always knows when we aren't doing our work, even when she's out in the hallway."

Jackie tried not to smile at the remark as she turned her attention back to Lucy, who was waiting patiently to talk to her.

"Sorry Lucy." She said.

"That's ok." She assured Jackie.

Jackie smiled at the little girl

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Jackie asked.

"Um, do you remember earlier, when I told you that Avalon didn't meet me at the crosswalk?"

"Yes, I remember." Jackie said nodding her head.

"When I told you that was I a tattle tale? Did I tattle on Avalon, is she going to get in trouble, because I didn't want her to get in trouble."

"Sweetie listen, you did the right thing by telling me, I needed to know that because I needed to find out if Avalon was safe, I'm proud of you, and no, she's not in trouble at all."

"And it wasn't a tattle?" the little girl asked.

"Nope. Do you remember the other day when Mrs. Anderson's and Ms. Masters class's came into our room and we explained to you guys the difference between tattling and telling for fear of someone being in danger?"

"Yeah." The little girls said shaking her head.

"Well what you told me about Avalon wasn't tattling, you told me because you thought she might be sick right?"

"Yeah."

"And you might not have realized this but there was a chance that she could have been in danger, did you know that?"

"You mean that she could have been sick and wanted a milk shake right? When I'm sick I always want one." The little girl said with a smile.

"Well sweetie, that's not exactly what I meant, what I meant by she could have been in danger was what if she fell down while she was walking to meet you and got hurt really bad, or what if something else had happened, and if you hadn't told me that she didn't meet you, I just would have thought she was at home, so you did the right thing by telling me. (Jackie didn't want to tell her that the little girl might have been hit by a car, or worse had been kidnapped because she didn't want to scare the daylights out of her) In fact when we go back inside the classroom why don't you grab a kindness slip and stick it in the bucket."

"Wow I really did do the right thing then, thanks Mrs. Stokes." Lucy said excitedly as she wrapped Jackie in a hug.

"You're welcome, thank you." Jackie said with a smile as she hugged her back.

With that both of them walked back into the classroom, the day had just started but already it had been an adventure, Jackie wondered what the rest of the day would bring.

**The End!**


End file.
